Gypsum board or drywall is widely used to create a finish surface for interior walls and ceilings, while sheathing is often used to create a surface for roofing materials. Hanging drywall and installing sheathing during the construction or renovation of buildings is commonplace, arduous, and repetitive.
Current installation practice for drywall is as follows: teams of laborers lift large, heavy sheets of gypsum board and carefully position them against the wall, often at height. A laborer must then affix the board to the structure of the wall. After an appropriate location is determined, usually where a screw will land in a wall stud, the laborer can drive in the screw. Many tens of screws are required to securely mount a board. The entire process is slow and exposes laborers to the possibility of repetitive stress injury. The process for placement of sheeting is similar and just as arduous and dangerous.
The installation of drywall, sheathing, and other construction boards would both benefit enormously from the use of a device that could, in conjunction with the guidance of a person or independently, place and either fully or partially attach the board to the underlying structure. The device would greatly reduce the strength required to maneuver the large and unwieldy boards and increase worker productivity.